


The Toxic Storm

by Megane



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Twins, Being Lost, Brother Feels, Brotherly Affection, Brothers, Canon-Typical Violence, Cyborgs, Hybrid Spells, Magic, Pain, Rain, Robots, Something's Not Right, Spoiler Free Territory, Trusting One's Instincts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-23 14:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9661844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megane/pseuds/Megane
Summary: While on their trip through a relatively quiet town, Prompto and his twin brother Futurus end up getting separated from the others. Now… they need to find their way back.





	

     “Do you know where we’re going?”

     “Nuh-uh…” came the breathy, hesitant response.

     “Shit. It all looks the same around here.”

     “Let’s go over here… I can try to call Iggy.”

Two blonds ran in the direction of a diner and stood under its awning to hide from the rain. Since it was pretty late in the evening, the diner had long closed by now. Futurus wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his arms and getting rid of the goose bumps he felt creeping over his skin. The strange thing was that the rain wasn’t cold. It was actually pretty humid outside, and the rain felt… almost warm. Prompto shook out his hair and started fanning himself with his shirt.

They were both a little tired from their earlier fight. Prompto’s arms still tingled from his use of magic. Futurus reached up his hands, trying to clean his ears and to stop the high pitched, tinny sound he could still faintly hear. Dropping his hands down, Futurus looked down at himself and frowned. His shirt stuck to his torso, some parts were wetter than others.  His grey cardigan was a shade darker now that it was soaked through with water. He uncurled his arms and held the hem of his shirt. He thought to wring it out, but honestly… He looked to the rain, sighing in defeat. There wouldn’t really be a point, would there?

He blinked when water fell down into his eye from his hair, which fell over his face in a hopeless wet mop. He reached up to push his hair out of the way, and it only fell back into place. Futurus clicked his tongue. Speaking of hopeless…

He gave up on that adventure pretty quickly. The storm had only been going for about twenty minutes, and they had been walking for at least an hour. It wasn’t an on again/off again type of rain. It was more of a sometimes drizzling/most times downpouring kind of thing. It was hard to predict when it was next going to pick up. And since they got separated from the others, they were forced to endure the weather.

     “Guh…” Prompto huffed.

Futurus turned towards his older sibling, flicking his head and coaxing his hair away from his eyes. He watched as Prompto curled his fingers towards his palm. His other hand held the phone in a tight grip. Futurus searched his brother, trying to find what was wrong, and upon finding nothing, he asked,

     “What? What’s wrong?”

     “Nothing.” Prompto pursed his lips together and rubbed his fingers against his trousers. He tried again to type on his phone but ended up scrunching up his face in frustration.

     Futurus sighed and reached forward to take Prompto’s hand. “C’mere…"

Futurus furrowed his brows as he quickly rubbed both of his hands against Prompto’s. Prompto hissed in pain as his brother picked up speed.”Alright, alright,” he said as he tugged his hand free. He gave it a small shake and then immediately began tapping on his phone. He brought the device up to his ear and plugged up the other one to hear better. The phone picked up immediately; Prompto closed his eyes in relief.

_“Prompto, where are you?”_ came Ignis’ hurried voice.

     “We don’t know; we’re at…” Prompto turned to look through the glass doors into the building. “…a diner or something,” he said. He looked to his brother, and they both shrugged at each other.

_“Diner?”_ and then Ignis sounded slightly further away as he asked,  _“Did either of you see a diner when we passed through here?"_

Noctis’ reply was brief and in the negative, and Prompto could kind of make out the sound of Gladio’s voice on the other side of the phone. He squinted at the rain, wishing it wasn’t there at all, and then turned slightly to look over at his brother. Futurus stood silently off to the side. He turned his attention to the falling rain, watching it with a severe but contemplative look on his face. His arms were loosely crossed in front of his stomach; his eyes were fixed on a certain spot in the sky as his jaw clenched and relaxed in slow intervals. Prompto briefly thought back to when Noctis borrowed his camera and snuck a picture of him. From what he remembered, he looked the same way in the picture that Futurus was now. Having a twin was weird…

_“Are you both safe?”_ Ignis asked finally.

     “We’re fine.” Prompto stared down at the ground now. "Do you know how to get to us, o-or is there a way we can get to you?”

     Ignis sighed. Never a good sign in this case.  _“I don’t know. We’ll have to find somewhere major to reconvene. We can try to find various diners around the area and search for you."_

     “Could try…” Prompto looked over to see Futurus close his eyes and shake his head slowly. Had he heard or was he responding to his own thoughts. “I think we sh—“

Prompto stopped short when he heard the imitative sound of a dog barking. Both twins looked over to their left. Futurus’ arms fell down at his sides. Prompto waited a beat before he heard an ominous whirring over the rain. They had to go. He ducked down, side stepped towards Futurus, and grabbed his younger brother by the wrist.

     “Iggy, we gotta go. Call back soon.”

_“Prompto? What is—"_

     “Magitek. Sure of it. Gotta go!” Prompto hung up and turned his phone all the way down to vibrate before dipping out into the rain. “Alright, c’mon.”

     “Right with you.”

Prompto glanced over to the left, trying to spot any sign of Magitek soldiers while they made their escape. There were a line of trees not too far away from them. It didn’t look thick enough to really be a forest, but it was enough to hide in. And if they stuck around near buildings like this, it wouldn’t be long until they were spotted. The warm rain was an unpleasant greeting against their skin. They passed through a streetlight as quickly as they could. Futurus huffed out a swear under his breath. Prompto closed his eyes tightly, hoping.

Maybe they weren’t seen…

Just as he thought that, a spear came crashing down right in front of them. The two stopped suddenly and looked down at the weapon. Futurus held his breath. He turned his hand and grasped Prompto under his wrist, coaxing his brother to step away as well. Prompto slowly followed Futurus into the shadows. The spearhead had opened into a multi-pronged grappler and wedged itself partially into the concrete. A red core glowed within, but Prompto had a feeling that the spear itself wasn’t dangerous. He had run into these bastards too many times before. At this rate, he was becoming almost intimately familiar with their weaponry.

     “I’ll check it out,” Futurus said as he conjured up a weapon.

Prompto glanced over towards his brother and saw as Futurus readied his sniper rifle. Futurus adjusted his zoom, sighing steadily through his nose calmly. His lips moved calmly as he counted the numbers. It was hard to tell properly with the rain. He lifted his head to try and count without his scope, but strangely, it was more difficult.

     “There’s about… eight of them?” he said softly, voice lilting uncertainly at the end. “I’m gonna need a clear shot."

     “I got it!” Prompto assured.

Futurus watched as his brother curled his fingers into a fist. A wave of green and purple energy rippled over Prompto’s form, almost covering him like a protective layer, as the older blond case Alchemist on himself. Futurus flicked his head back and briefly closed his eyes as he cast Scan.

Afterward, Futurus looked back down the scope of his sniper. He could see how far away the closest Magitek fighter was. As the mechanised soldiers marched ever closer, they passed under streetlights, and Futurus could more clearly gauge their number. He felt better. There were about eight, nine of them. Wouldn’t be too bad to take care of. He closed his eyes and gave a hard shake of his head. Fucking rain…

     “Five meters, Prom.”

     “I’ve got it.” 

Prompto closed his eyes as he focused on his magic. He wasn’t great with this spell, but as he learned from his adventure so far, the only way he could get better at things was to just _do_ them and pray for the best. He curled his fingers against his palms as he let out a slow, long breath.

     “Three meters.”

Gunfire. Prompto flinched at the sudden noise in the air, but he kept his focus. Behind him, Futurus clicked his tongue derisively against his teeth. He took a step back to better brace his weight, lowered his gun slightly, and fired off a shot. His body rocked with the hard kickback. His sniper raised higher with the shot. The first Magitek went down sloppily. It wasn’t a perfect shot by any means, but it was at least one less problem for now. He focused his attention on the next soldier. He pulled on the bolt to snap out the empty bullet case and loaded a new bullet into the chamber.

     “Two an’a half!” he called out.

     “Oh, come on…” Prompto responded, a tad nervously.

Prompto turned his left hand palm up and uncurled his fingers before doing the same with his right. With both spells in hand, Prompto slapped his hands together. A domed, milky white, translucent, honeycombed shield surrounded them. Ripples appeared in different spots where the rain hit it. Pieces of the shield depressed as if they were being touched before setting back into their former place. Prompto tested the shield’s integrity from the inside. He started a Blizzara spell with a curl of his fingers, but the element sparked and wisped away in his fingers. Good.

     “Here we go!” Prompto said as he dropped down to one knee and summoned his pistol into his right hand.

Futurus dropped down beside him. He settled the sniper on Prompto’s back, using it as a stabilizer. He stared down the scope as more gunfire came towards them. Honeycombed cells turned grey-white as pullets passed through them, slowing the projectiles and knocking them slightly off course. Futurus’ eyes winced as he felt a bullet graze past his cheek, but otherwise he held his position.

     “One meter…” he said in a soft, emotionless voice.

     “Get ‘em.” Prompto narrowed his eyes when he spotted several red dots in the trees. He raised his pistol and aimed his weapon as best as he could. “We’ve got a couple more!”

     “Gotcha."

Futurus got the first shot off, and Prompto followed immediately after, firing three times towards a soldier that stepped around a tree. They paced out their shots, accounting for the slow pull and redirection of their shield to make each bullet count. Each shot struck true and either knocked back or felled each Magitek soldier hit. The shield gave a single, uniform flicker around the twins. Prompto spun his gun on his finger, snapping out the magazine as it went backwards. As he drew it forward again, he popped in a new clip and took aim again.

Futurus reloaded his bullets in between each shot, keeping a mental count of his ammo with each pull of his bolt. Just as he readied another shot, he saw something glow bright red in the distance before dimming into a deep red line. He waited for a moment and saw a large body pass in front of the streetlight.

     “Big one,” Futurus said as he drew his sniper back again.

He slid his hand down the body of his sniper, and the weapon changed under his hand. It took on the form of a sleek grey pistol.

     “Of course! Why would it be easy?” Prompto huffed as he jumped to his feet.

He walked forward to the edge of their domed shield. He pressed his gun right up against it. He fired two more times into a soldier that didn’t fall from his earlier shots. Just as the soldier fell, Prompto saw a mechanical canine charging towards him. He emptied his last remaining shots into the beast, watching as it staggered. He popped the empty magazine, and as he tried to quickly reload, the mechanical hound threw itself towards the shield.

Futurus blinked at the shield as it wavered again, and Prompto grabbed him by the shoulder.

     “Turi! Watch out!” 

Futurus barely had a second to react as he was pushed out of the way. Prompto pulled himself away, just as the Magitek hound bit down on his right forearm. Prompto grit his teeth. He braced the pain as he put the gun against the creature’s head. He fired twice at point blank range. Once the robotic dog fell away, Prompto’s fingers twitched in pain. 

Futurus hurried over and clamped his hand to the spot. A wave of weak healing energy surged up Prompto’s arm. Prompto gave a testing curl of his hand. It still hurt, but it wasn’t as bad as before. He nodded to his brother, who reached forward to squeeze his shoulder and stood up.

     “Doesn’t look like the shield’ll hold up for much longer."

Prompto shook his head and looked around. Not seeing any further danger, he looked to the giant Magitek goon still lumbering their way. It was unsettling to say the least. Usually, Magitek would have charged in, trying to overwhelm with their sheer speed and numbers. But this was different. Firstly, there weren’t many of them. And while Prompto would have argued that, _maybe_ , the Magitek was just splitting up their numbers to attack both groups, that still didn’t explain the way they moved. 

He shook himself out of his thoughts. Maybe he was just looking too deeply into it. He leveled his suspicious gaze onto the bigger enemy. The shield gave slowly. Some cells allowed rain inside the protected space. Prompto and Futurus gave one last look to each other before preparing themselves to take down the big bad still walking towards them.

     “Should we fight?” Futurus asked in a low voice.

It would be good to finish it off, but Prompto knew firsthand how arduous it could be to fight these things. And that was with four people. God forbid they try with just two.

     “We stun it. And get out of here.”

     Futurus nodded, lips tugging down ever so slightly. “Sounds good to me."

Their shield gave away finally, and rain poured down on top of them. Prompto shuddered under the spray. At least now they could hit the last soldier as hard as they could. Futurus and Prompto pressed their backs together; Prompto’s left leg was against Futurus’ right with their free legs angled away from each other. Their pistols were aimed straight at the remaining Magitek enemy. As one, they narrowed their eyes and took focus.

The rain soaked through their hair, and the large automaton continued its way towards them. Its left leg jerked uncertainly under its weight. Futurus scoffed.

     Cockily, he said, “Looks like someone got to it before we did.”

     Prompto frowned deeper and agreed, distractedly. “Yeah…” He adjusted his grip on his pistol. “Let’s finish this thing off."

Magic raced up and between their bodies, channeling into a concentrated point against their palms. The magic sank deep into the grips of their guns, and upon feeling the satisfactory shift in temperature, the twins pulled the trigger simultaneously. Fira grew hot in the barrels of their guns and exploded with a lick of flame as the bullet shot out from the chambers. The Magitek soldier rattled with the force of the impact. Fire and embers danced into the air; smoke greeted the pouring rain. Futurus gave a flick of his hair, and Prompto raked the wet blond hair back away from his forehead. 

     “I think that’s it.”

     Futurus took a moment to look around before giving an unsure nod. “Let’s hope so.” Finally, he began stepping away and touched under Prompto’s arm. “Let’s go.”

     “Yeah.”

Their weapons dematerialized. Crystal fragments danced in the rain before disappearing into nothingness. Prompto gave one last glance over his shoulder to their surroundings. The diner seemed so isolated. It looked like the only building on the road, and that unsettling feeling went deeper in his stomach. He touched a hand over his navel and turned his head away, following his brother into the lines of trees. At least this way, they were immediately out of sight, but they tried to follow the road as best as they could from their position.

More Magitek showed up. This time, it was a small group of about four, but the twins ducked down behind the bushes and slowly crept past. It would be easy to dispose of them with a few well aimed magic-infused shots, but they needed to conserve their magic in case something else major popped up. Upon spotting another group, Prompto repeated the same duck-and-crouch-walk-the-hell-away plan, but he looked back when he noticed that Futurus wasn’t following him. 

     “What?” he asked.

Futurus glanced to him and then quickly pointed over the line of shrubbery. Prompto started to argue that they should _leave_ , but he gave into his own curiosity. He turned and peered over the shrubs. His eyes widened when he saw a daemon following after soldiers. It was big, muscular. In a strange way, it reminded him of Bahamut, and he could only _hope_ that Bahamut didn’t have any ungodly offspring. Instead of continuing the way they were going, Prompto reached over, silently fanning for Futurus’ attention.

     “This way,” he said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.

Futurus stared at him but then looked back to the daemon.  _Please don’t go after it,_ Prompto begged in his mind. But he was thankfully when his twin had the better sense to follow instead of fight. They turned off to the side and went deeper into the trees. For Prompto, it was hard to keep his steps light when he wanted so very badly to just run away, but they couldn’t afford to get caught. He didn’t want to put his brother in danger.

     “I think we’re clear,” he said after five minutes of painful stealth walking.

They both stood with a groan, and Futurus stretched out his body with a tense expression. He looked back and nodded his head. Yeah, they were definitely in the clear now. Figuratively, anyway. It was still raining. Much like every other strange thing, the rain still wasn’t cold. If tonight wasn’t so weird, it might have been comforting. Even in spite of the warmth, Prompto crossed his arms in front of himself, tucking his hands under his arms and slumping his shoulders forward. To his right, Futurus walked tall, eyes squinted slightly to prevent rain from blinding him. He looked properly intimidating and as if he was just taking a stroll through his wet domain.

They walked in silence side-by-side for a few minutes. They managed to find the main road again, and to their endless relief, no other Magitek soldiers (or daemons) were around. They shared a soft sigh of content, but neither of them dropped their guard completely.

     “We’ll find them,” Futurus said, breaking the silence between them. He didn’t look to Prompto. “We’ll find the others.”

Prompto looked over and stared silently at the other blond before giving a small smile. He laughed, turning his head away. 

     “Trying to comfort me? Keep talking like that, and people’ll think you’re the older brother.”

     “Don’t they already?”

Prompto gave a fond smile. The twins looked at each other, their smiles broadening, and then moved closer together. Prompto stood straighter and bumped his shoulder against his brother’s. He stared down at the ground as they walked. The rain and the silence was comforting in a way. He was glad that  they could have a moment to recuperate before anything else happened. He pursed his lips together. He _hoped_ nothing else would happen…

The intermittent streetlights gave him a small stirring of hope though. With the light shining so brightly, the darkness wasn’t so thick and encompassing. It didn’t seem so… final. He believed that they would find the others. In fact, he knew that they would. But there was still something in the air that just made him feel relentlessly uneasy.

     “We’ll have to find them soon,” he said softly. "Something about this place. I don’t know… It just gives me the creeps.”

     “What kinda creeps?”

     Prompto paused, thinking on it. “It just feels like something’s holding me. Like there’s a stone in my stomach and that there’s something down pushing it even further.”

     It was Futurus’ turn to be quiet. After processing, he gave a little nod. “Okay,” he said softly. “Let’s do what we can.”

As they walked, the rain began to lessen overhead. Just ahead, they could make a tree with huge leaves. They hurried towards it, and Prompto instantly went for his phone again. Futurus dropped down into a squat next to his brother. The large leaves caught the raindrops, sounding like bullets falling overhead. He rubbed his face with both hands and cupped his hands over his mouth. He sighed against his palms and then looked up towards Prompto, watching as his brother kept lifting his phone into the air.

     “Dammit. Can’t get any reception out here,” Prompto said as he brought the phone closer to his face. 

Futurus frowned. Well, that wasn't good at all, and his phone died a few hours ago. Yeah, okay. He knew he should have charged his phone when they stopped to eat— the others had nagged him to do as much anyway— but since he didn’t, now he was living with the consequences. He shook his head slowly and stared out at the road. What were they going to do…? The main road had widened out, allowing for two lanes of traffic. Futurus narrowed his eyes. Now that he thought about it, there hadn’t been a single car on the road since they got here. Aside from theirs, of course. 

He bit along the inside of his right cheek. He kinda felt what Prompto was talking about now. There was something decidedly “off” about this place, and he wasn’t in any hurry to figure out what that was. Looking up from the road, he noticed two lights in the distance. The one to the left was small, dim, and sort of far away. The one to the right was bright and was a bit closer. The rain had an orange tint as it crossed in front of the light. 

Looking between the two, he wasn’t entirely sure of where they should go. Splitting up wouldn’t be an option, especially with the two of the them getting the heebie-jeebies around this place. Futurus laced his fingers together in front of his face. He rubbed his thumbs against each other.

     “Prom,” he began without looking up.

     “What is it, Turi?”

Prompto was still tapping at his phone, trying to figure out a way to contact the others. He knew it was futile to keep trying in this spot, but anxiousness made him do it anyway. Futurus pointed at the lights with his right index finger, keeping his fingers still laced together and touching his thumbs to his cheeks.

     “Look at those lights across the street.” He waited a few seconds to give Prompto a chance to look. Afterward, he dropped his forearms to his thighs and stared up at his brother. “Which way should we go?”

Prompto looked down towards Futurus and frowned. His worry was practically audible, but Futurus met the look evenly. 

     “I…” Prompto slowly looked away towards the lights and then back to his brother. “I don’t want to get us lost.”

     “It’s okay,” Futurus said with a small smile. “I trust you. I trust your instincts. Where you go, I go. That’s how it is, yeah?”

Prompto’s brows twitched together. After a reluctant moment, he sighed, placed a hand on his stomach, and closed his eyes. Futurus waited quietly. As he waited, the rain picked up again. It sounded as if someone was unloading a bag of marbles over their heads. He frowned deeply and leaned his head back to glare up at the sky. “Again…?” he muttered before shaking his head. God, he hated the rain… He looked over to Prompto, who pointed over towards the left light with his free hand. Prompto opened his eyes with a little frown.

     “That way…"

     “Alright.” Futurus stood with a groan. There was a dull sting in his thighs, but he ignored it. “Let’s go.”

Prompto hesitated again. Futurus took a step closer. He wasn’t sure whether or not to offer some comfort, but when Prompto shoved his phone into his pocket, Futurus realised he didn’t need to. Despite the veil of uncertainty, there was a look of determination in Prompto’s eyes. The two of them ran as fast as they could towards the left light. The rain beat down on their back and shoulders; it was kinda painful as each drop hit them, but there was no way they were going to stop now. The twins shook their heads and rubbed their faces to get rid of as much water as they could. 

Futurus hissed in pain as he felt a sharp jab in his side. He clamped his hand just under his ribs and doubled over with pain, but he kept running as best as he could. Prompto looked over at the initial noise of pain and slowed down his steps as his brother did. He reached over to rub a hand over Futurus’ shoulders.

     “You okay?”

     “Just keep going,” Futurus said. He pushed at Prompto’s hip, encouraging him forward. “I’m alright.”

     “Stop lying.” Prompto grabbed Futurus by the wrist and pulled him closer, wrapping an arm around his brother’s middle. “C’mon…"

They crossed the empty street. The streetlights gave the wet road an orange tinge. Futurus’ pain grew, shooting down to his leg and forcing him to limp. The two slowed down to a half-hearted jog and then to a power walk as they waited for the stitch in Futurus’ side to fade away. When Futurus felt right enough to run on his own, they made it to the interesting street with the faded light.

Just ahead of them and to the left, they could see a car parked diagonally in the road. Prompto’s throat burned as he ran. He was breathing improperly, and it hurt to swallow. Futurus jogged behind him, keeping up at his own pace. Another stitch was weaving its way up his side. He pressed his lips together and tried to keep his audible discomfort to a minimum. Prompto reached up and shoved his hair back out of his face. There were two people standing near the car, and then a third hurried down the steps, pointing back towards the empty building and talking to the others. 

It was them! It had to be…! _We’re right here!_ Prompto wanted to yell, but his throat– augh! He looked to Futurus, who nodded. He saw them too. Prompto reached for his brother’s wrist and pulled him towards the others. Ignis was the first to notice. He took a few hurried steps closer to the twins. Noctis turned sharply to the right, his arm swinging freely when he did. Gladio pushed away from the car and came around to the other side to be closer with everyone else.

     Ignis placed a hand on Prompto’s shoulder, looking from him over to Futurus. “We’re glad you’re both okay. Into the Regalia. Hurry.”

     “Like we need an invite,” Futurus muttered, wincing as he was guided to the car.

Ignis pulled away to move around to the driver’s side. Noctis slapped his hands on both of Prompto’s shoulders as the blond passed. He crawled into the car first. Gladio placed a hand on Futurus’ lower back. The younger blond looked back over his shoulder and met Gladio’s questioning gaze. Futurus scoffed. “‘m fine,” he lied. “Just not as young as I used to be.” Gladio huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes, letting Futurus step into the car after him. Prompto gave a weak smile, watching as his brother climbed in safely. He looked over his shoulder and then around as he got into the Regalia himself.

The car doors slammed shut when everyone was inside, and the sound of rain was muffled now against the Regalia’s convertible top. The car felt too hot; the twins’ clothes clung to them in uncomfortable ways, but there was nothing they could do about it just yet. There was an actual second of silence before the twins launched into what happened when they were separated, taking over each other in breathless attempts to convey their sides of the story. Ignis turned on the engine and steered the Regalia out of the street. Prompto brought up the creature they saw, and Futurus tagged in to help describe it, though neither of them could make out any real details. Ignis turned left onto the main road. Just as he did, both the twins stopped what they were saying and shouted,

     “Wait!”

     Futurus leaned forward between the seats, carefully rubbing his fingers in a circular motion just under his ribs. “There’s a road coming up with a really bright light.”

     “We need to see what’s over there,” Prompto added, looking out for the light in question. “We’ll just… pass by it.” He made a motion with his right hand as he looked to Futurus, who nodded in agreement.

     Ignis drummed his fingers over the steering wheel. “Any reason in particular?”

     “Just a hunch…” Futurus said, Prompto humming in the affirmative.

Ignis gave Prompto a look before doing as the two asked. He carefully drove the Regalia down the road. The windshield wipers pushed aside rain to allow everyone to see clearly. “Right there,” Prompto said, dropping his voice to a whisper. “Here, here.” They slowed down to a stop and everyone leaned towards the driver side windows. Futurus pulled back and leaned more towards Gladio, which gave Noctis a chance to move towards the middle and peek around.

The street was brightly lit, unlike the road they just came from. The buildings all had lights outside of them. The few cars they could see had their headlights were on, but it seemed that the road was predominantly lit by one major light that hovered without a visible source over the road. People jerkily walked into the street, silhouetted against the light. Prompto’s face went slack, his eyes widening as that unsettling feeling bloomed into an uneasy sickness. The residents stopped in the road. They each raised one hand into the sky and stared up at it. A woman shambled into the light just as the others had, stopped, and then slowly put her hand up into the air. She fanned out her fingers and slowly canted her head to the side. Afterward, she turned her hand. She brought it down to her face.

Everyone in the Regalia watched as the other residents did the same. For a moment afterward, there was nothing. Futurus curled his fingers in the tense silence. But then, there was a soft pulsation of power somewhere down the road that became more and more powerful as it came closer. It rippled over the Regalia, and everyone within felt this dark, creeping feeling dig deep into them.

They had seen enough.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ignis got them out of there as quickly and as safely as they could. Noctis and Gladio eased back against their seats, voicing their confusion and apprehension. Futurus and Prompto looked to each other. The look of relief on Prompto’s face was inexplicable. He made the right choice. Futurus smiled in response, happy for his brother– happy for them both! While it was a shame he hadn’t inherited whatever good instincts Prompto had, he was just glad they were with everyone else. The two embraced tightly. Futurus ran his fingers through Prompto’s hair and gave the wet strands a fond ruffle. Prompto pressed his face against his brother’s neck and tightened his hold in Futurus’ clothing. 

They were ready for whatever awaited them after the storm because they still had each other.

**Author's Note:**

> I have so many plans for these two, and Prompto's the oldest because something about Prompto being called "big brother" warms my heart. So. There you go.
> 
> I've had this in the making for…… maybe a month or so now, and I'm finally getting around to it. Futurus has a bio thus far, but you'll just have to learn more about him in the next story~


End file.
